


how much of a tongue can I bite

by cupcakeb



Series: Lubeka being THAT couple ™ [1]
Category: Elite (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Lubeka will forever be the single biggest missed opportunity on this entire show, Workplace Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:53:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27295225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cupcakeb/pseuds/cupcakeb
Summary: They’re trying to be subtle about it. Lu was the one who insisted on keeping things quiet for a while. Their office culture is pretty chill and people end up hooking up all the time but the idea of turning their fairly new relationship into office gossip isn’t exactly fun to think about.That’s how workplace romance is supposed to be anyway, right? Subtle. Well. Subtlety isnotRebeka’s forte.
Relationships: Rebeca "Rebe" de Bormujo Ávalos/Lucrecia "Lu" Montesinos Hendrich, background Carmuel
Series: Lubeka being THAT couple ™ [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2101437
Comments: 15
Kudos: 47





	how much of a tongue can I bite

**Author's Note:**

> for the prompt "Is that my shirt?" from tumblr. ~~don't talk to me about how this was supposed to be a drabble~~

They’re trying to be subtle about it. Lu was the one who insisted on keeping things quiet for a while. Their office culture is pretty chill and people end up hooking up all the time thanks to the epic after work drinks their bosses like to host, but yeah, the idea of turning their fairly new relationship into office gossip isn’t exactly fun to think about.  
  
That’s how workplace romance is supposed to be anyway, right? Subtle.  
  
Well. Subtlety is _not_ Rebeka’s forte.  
  
Look, she’s blunt. Not to a fault, so like, she knows when to keep her mouth shut, but she likes telling it how it is. Assertive — that’s what those occupational personality assessments always tell her she is. It’s what’s gotten her the global account director gig in a fucking male-dominated industry at just 31. Tech is a ruthless place to work without the right mindset. Actually closing a deal takes a literal village, so she’s glad she’s got Lu in hers.  
  
Lu is kind of a rarity in her field. Not to get too bogged down in the details, and not to be sexist in any way, but a fucking technical solution manager who’s also a woman and under the age of thirty is pretty hard to come by. Rebeka knows she must’ve fought hard to get here, knows she spent years working on the operational side of things — probably pulling 24/7 shifts while constantly surrounded by shitty locker room talk from her male engineering peers.  
  
When Lu first got promoted into the role, Rebe had taken a meeting with her and fully expected to be the one _leading_ said meeting — boy, was she wrong. Turns out Lu’s kind of… assertive, too. And really fucking hot? Damn. They’re both Spanish speakers, another rare find at their London HQ, and Rebe’s kind of intrigued from the get-go.  
  
They spent the entirety of that first meeting arguing over the technical reqs the customer (a company belonging to a certain Mr. Gates) is working with in terms of upgrading cloud bandwidth, and even though they were literally in full agreement by the end of it, Rebeka felt like she just ran a fucking marathon. Lu’s fucking tiny, and yet despite all that, Rebe instantly knew this girl was gonna be a handful.  
  
They closed the deal two months later, celebrated with a ridiculously expensive dinner in the city with the whole project team, and maybe she and Lu got into a little bit of a fight about who could handle their liquor better. At the end of the night it ended up being just the two of them, throwing back shots at a nearby dive bar, and when Lu slid a hand up her leg and gave her this sexy little smirk, Rebeka didn’t think twice about kissing the shit out of her.  
  
It’s always a nice surprise when the hot, smart, insufferable woman you’ve spent most of your working hours bickering with for the past few months turns out to be into women. Fuck yeah.  
  
She’s too old to pretend this is just sex, and too — there’s that word again — _assertive_ to not just kiss Lu the next morning and tell her they’re obviously doing this again. Thankfully, the shorter girl instantly agreed with her, just said, “Darling, if all I wanted was sex I wouldn’t have seduced one of my coworkers,” and they spent the next hour arguing about who seduced who here, exactly. Totally worth being late to their 9’o’clock meeting for.  
  
So that’s where they’re at. It’s been just shy of a month since they first started going out, and aside from a few random meetings, their work lives haven’t really overlapped much lately, which is probably for the best. It’s hard for Rebeka not to smile too wide every time Lu walks into the room, so it’d be a little awkward and obvious if they ended up in meetings together all the time.  
  
“You know Simon asked me about you today,” Lu says from her spot at Rebeka’s kitchen table one night, a glass of red wine in hand as she watches Rebe cook for her. Spoiled little princess.  
  
Rebe scoffs. “Simon? You mean, _can’t even send us the fucking marketing materials on time but probably still makes more money than us_ Simon?”  
  
Nodding, Lu swirls the red wine around in her glass and takes a sip. “That’s the one.”  
  
“What the fuck did he want?”  
  
“He asked if I’d seen you around lately because he needed your input on something,” from the look on her face, Rebe can tell there’s more to this story because a tiny smirk makes its way onto Lu’s lips. “And then he asked if I’d mind setting up a meeting for the three of us since you and I are _such close friends_.”  


Yeah okay, that’s pretty funny. People are so incredibly oblivious when it comes to non-straight office relationships. It’s great — they don’t have to try very hard to hide this from people. The other day they were having lunch in the kitchen with some people, and when Lu let slip that they’d hung out on the weekend, one of the project managers had jokingly told them it was cool to see Sales and Service Delivery getting along so well for once, and Lu had to kick her shin under the table to stop her from properly laughing in response. It just sounded like a bad sex joke, ok? Not her fucking fault people are oblivious as fuck.  
  
“I don’t want to attend any more meetings with that dick,” Rebe says. She drains the pasta, then grins at Lu over her shoulder. “You could at least set the fucking table while I finish cooking.”  
  
Lu sets her wine down with a pointed clink of glass, then gets up and wraps her arms around Rebeka’s waist from behind. It must be pretty weird to see the two of them together. Rebeka’s at least a head taller than Lu, and even now she can feel Lu’s chin jutting into her shoulder.  
  
“So demanding,” she scolds, running a hand under Rebe’s shirt. “I really need to talk to your VP about this horribly complacent attitude you’re displaying towards working _with_ Service Del, instead of just having us work _for_ you.” 

It’s amusing when they joke about work, but sometimes she kind of just wants to be Rebeka, the chaotic mess with a keen interest in awful reality TV after hours, so she clasps a hand over Lu’s wrist where it’s resting on her stomach and squeezes. “Set the fucking table, drama queen.”  
  
“Yes, sir,” Lu salutes, then grabs plates and cutlery from one of the drawers, making sure to brush up against Rebeka in the process. “I’m hungry, this better be good.”  
  
Rebe shakes her head and sighs. Such a little brat.  
  
###  
  
“You have a _girlfriend_ ,” Samuel is giving her a dubious look, like she absolutely must be fucking with him. He’s on her couch with a bottle of beer in hand.  
  
They met four years ago when she’d just moved to London for work and had somehow dragged herself to one of the only legit Spanish tapas places in the city during a bout of homesickness. He was her waiter — something she hasn’t let him live down, even now that he’s got a legit job in finance. So what if he was only working at the tapas joint part-time to pay his way through university? The nickname sort of stuck.  
  
“Why are you saying it like that?”  
  
He grins sheepishly. “Because you said you don’t date women.”  
  
“I never said that.”  
  
“Yes you did. I believe your exact words were ‘ _I only fuck them, they’re too high maintenance to keep around_ ’.”  
  
Ugh. Fine. So she said and did some dumb shit in her twenties — whatever. She’s never been interested in relationships of any kind, honestly. It’s hardly a matter of gender.  
  
“Not like I planned it,” she mumbles, then moves so her leg is propped up on the coffee table in front of her. “But yeah, she’s pretty cool.”  
  
That’s literally the lamest possible thing she could’ve said about Lu. She’s such a fucking lovestruck fool.  
  
“Wait, so she works for you? That’s creepy.”  


And this would be why she doesn’t tell people she met her girlfriend at work. Go figure. Samu infamously hooked up with his hot female TA for, like, a whole year while he was finishing grad school, so he hardly gets to judge.  
  
“She doesn’t work _for_ me, she works _with_ me.”  
  
After years of putting up with his teasing, she knows exactly how to shut him up. She grabs her phone, finds Lu’s Instagram profile and hands it to him. “There. That’s her.”  
  
His reaction is instant; he raises his eyebrows slightly and scrolls through her profile with the kind of precision and practice that only years of social media stalking might bring.  
  
“Holy shit, she looks intense.” 

Rebe glances at the picture he’s looking at — it’s Lu at their company summer party, wearing a cute floral pattern dress and a flower crown in her hair. The whole thing was festival themed, hence the less than couture look. Compared to her usual self, she actually looks fairly approachable here, which is why she grins at Samu and shrugs.

“She is intense.”

Smiling as she says it is her downfall. Samu takes one look at her and starts laughing. 

“My god, you’re totally pussy-whipped.”

“Is that supposed to be a gay joke? Really? Talk to me when you take home a girl as hot as her.” 

“You know I’m married to my job.”

_Bull-fucking-shit_. Not being able to get over a random fling with his (admittedly) very hot former TA, even three years out of university has absolutely nothing to do with his 9 to 5 job as a fucking FP&A analyst. 

But bringing up Carla never ends well, so instead Rebe just laughs. “Yes, I hear the hospitality industry is booming. Tough gig.“

He rolls his eyes. “Fuck you.” 

“No thanks.”  


###  


“What if he doesn’t like me? Is this one of those big relationship tests that everyone who’s ever gotten close to you has failed?”  
  
They’re early for dinner with Samuel and whatever date he’s bringing, mainly because Lu is a nervous wreck about finally meeting one of her friends for literally no apparent reason. She needs to calm down. The thought of Samu actually somehow being threatening and opinionated enough to dislike Lu and then scare her off is kind of hilarious, so Rebe grins at Lu and grabs her hand under the table.  
  
“Samuel’s a fucking dumbass, I don’t think you need to worry about trying to impress him,” she tells her, even though Lu will definitely try no matter what. Lu is ambitious to a fault — there’s no way she’d be okay with not instantly winning over one of Rebeka’a closest friends. 

She spots Samu walking in a couple minutes later, holding hands with a gorgeous, perky looking blonde girl who Rebeka is pretty sure she’s seen before; she can't quite place her from this far away.   
  
Lu jumps out of her seat when the two of them get close enough to greet. “Oh my god, Carla?”  
  
Oh, so _this_ is Carla. She’s been wondering about the mystery date Samu had teased all week — it seemed kind of weird that he’d bring some random chick to dinner on a whim. Maybe she just remembered her differently from the pictures Samu showed her ages ago; slightly longer hair maybe?  
  
Lu engulfs the startled looking blonde in a hug, grinning from ear to ear. When they pull apart, Rebe and Samu are both just staring at them, waiting for an explanation. “We go to the same yoga studio,” Lu explains, then faces Samuel and shakes his hand all weird and formal, leaving Rebeka to greet Carla.  
  
“Small world,” Carla says, then reaches down to cheek kiss Rebeka. “Nice to finally meet you.”  
  
For such a big city, London seems bizarrely close-knit sometimes. They make small talk for a while and order food, and the whole time, Rebe’s thinking about asking exactly one thing. When their waitress walks off, she finally turns to grin at Samuel and Carla and raises an eyebrow.  
  
“When did you two get back together?”  
  
As far as Rebe knows, they literally stopped speaking right after Samu graduated three years ago, so all of this is a little random.  
  
Samu is grinning into his beer glass, then winks at her. “None of your business, bitch.”  
  
The way Carla rolls her eyes at his antics and steals a sip of his beer is pretty funny. They’re definitely gonna get along. “I’m sorry, he’s impossible,” she jokes, patting him on the shoulder as she addresses him. “Did you learn nothing in my gender studies class? Stop referring to women as bitches.”  
  
“Oh, that’s just his severe speech impediment,” Rebeka teases. Political correctness is overrated. “He probably meant to say _butch_.”  
  
Turning in her seat next to her, Lu reaches over to pinch Rebe’s cheek and laughs. “Darling, I’d never date anyone butch, that can’t be it.”  
  
Lu finishes her glass of wine and instantly reaches for the carafe to pour herself some more.  
  
“Is no one going to mention how fucking random it is that we all know each other?”

The rest of the night goes off without a hitch, and it’s not until Rebe’s pulling the covers up around her shoulders in bed later as they’re drunkenly cuddling that Lu starts laughing uncontrollably.  
  
“What is it?”  
  
Lu is literally shaking with laughter, rolling over to bury her face against Rebeka’s bare chest, and Rebe moves her hand up her back to pull her closer. “Okay, you can’t tell Samuel.”  
  
Uh, okay? “I can’t tell him what,” she asks, then thinks about what this could possibly be about. Is Lu suggesting…. Oh my god, no way. “Wait, are you saying Carla swings both ways?”  
  
All Lu does in response is laugh even louder, running a hand up Rebe’s arm as she nods.  
  
“Okay, that’s _amazing_. What’s she like?”  
  
She really appreciates the attention to detail that goes into Lu’s retelling of the drunk hookup she and Carla apparently engaged in last spring. Picking someone up at a fucking lunchtime yoga class and getting her drunk enough to put out in the middle of the day takes serious skill; she's kind of in awe of Lu. God, she can’t wait to throw this in Samu’s face.  
  
“I fucked him once,” Rebe chimes in. “Worst sex of my life.”  
  
Lu cracks up again, then moans and clutches her abs in pain. “Stop making me laugh,” she pouts, so Rebe kisses the little grin off her lips and pets her stomach a little, making Lu laugh into the kiss.  
  
Things get a little heated, and even though her head is kind of spinning from the wine, kissing her incredibly hot girlfriend is always a good idea.  
  
Lu pulls away to giggle. “God, I’m too drunk for this.”  
  
“That didn’t stop us the first time, babe.”  
  
###

Samu texts her during lunch a few days later, asking if she wants to get a drink tonight, and she figures why the hell not. Wednesdays are ideal for a little midweek after work binge drinking, and Lu has plans tonight — not that she plans her life around when her girlfriend is willing to hang out with her or anything, but still.  
  
They end up at this shitty pub near Rebe’s office, mainly because she gets a 10% discount there since she works next door. London’s expensive; you gotta take what you can get.

It takes her less than five minutes after they sit down with their drinks to shoot him a smug grin and say, “Did you know my girlfriend fucked yours?”  
  
Samuel cracks up, and he’s nodding, so Carla has definitely mentioned it.  
  
“Maybe we should get into swingers shit since most of us have already hooked up,” she suggests, and Samu scrunches up his nose a little. He gets so uncomfortable at the mention of anything sexually explicit — she thinks that’s fucking hilarious. “Or we switch them out for a night, just to come full circle.”  
  
She's pretty sure there's a _come_ joke in there somewhere.   
  
“I don't think Lu is really my type,” he grins.  
  
“Shame. Carla’s definitely mine,” she trails off, waving down a waiter to order a round of shots. “How did you two reconnect anyway?”  
  
The boyish, shy way in which Samuel tells her the story of their reunion seriously makes her wonder how a fumbling idiot like him scored a chick as hot as Carla.  
  
###  
  
“It’ll be weird at the Christmas party,” Lu says, running a brush through her hair. They’re on their way out to see a Westend show, some weird revival that Lu was adamant about getting tickets to see. “When we can’t drunkenly make out.”  
  
Rebeka laughs. At least Lu has her priorities straight.  
  
“Yeah, the open bar is really gonna test our restraint.”  
  
Lu puts the brush down and turns around, a tiny little smile on her lips. “Maybe we could tell people…”  
  
“I…” She looks up and Lu’s just got this knowing look on her face, like she can already tell she’s about to be shut down.  
  
It’s not that Rebeka doesn’t want people to know. Lu’s fucking awesome — of course she wants people to know she’s tapping that on a regular basis. They’ve now been dating four months, which is a substantial amount of time. It's probably still too soon to tell people at the office. That’s not to say she thinks they’re breaking up anytime soon, she’s just acutely aware of the annoying fucking rumors people would spread about them.  
  
Being a woman in a company where 80% of employees are straight, white and male is hard enough without being branded as the lesbian who fucked her technical lead. (She’s not even going to pretend anyone will acknowledge that bisexuality is a thing.)  
  
“You’re right,” Lu finally says to break the silence, and even if the smile on her face is a little forced, Rebe can tell she’s similarly conflicted about this. “Let’s see how December goes.”  
  
###  
  
December goes well because Lu goes rogue.  
  
She and Lu have very different tastes in fashion.  
  
Lu is almost always put together, wears designer skirts and dresses and purses, and though their office dress code is officially casual enough for most people to just wear jeans, Lu likes pantsuits. She’s the only one actually keeping the tradition of casual Fridays alive because everyone else just pretty much always dresses casually.  
  
Meanwhile, Rebeka is a no-frills dresser, at least when it comes to professional settings. A pair of jeans — blue, black, gray, ideally no holes in them — and a t-shirt on a regular day, or maybe a slightly nicer blouse on a day where she knows she’s meeting with clients who might not share their view on not dressing to impress. She was pretty into grunge as a teen, and occasionally she’ll still get out the odd fishnet tight or obscenely large pair of dangly gold earrings, but for the most part, she just dresses like any other casual hipster in the gentrified part of town she works in. Ah, and then there’s her longstanding Friday tradition of wearing some of her old band shirts to work. She's got about four of them in rotation; the others are a little too worn and littered with holes to be office appropriate.   
  
That’s why all of this is so startling.  
  
Lu stayed over last night and left for work before Rebeka even got out of bed this morning, mumbling something about a deadline and an 8 am meeting, which Rebe begrudgingly acknowledged with a groan before going back to sleep.  
  
When Lu walks into their 11’o’clock strategy meeting and sits down next to her, Rebeka is staring, and not just because Lu looks cute. She glances over at her, trying for subtle because the Head of CCO and some of the other account directors are already sitting gathered around the room, then leans towards Lu so she can whisper in her ear.  
  
“Is that my shirt?”  
  
It’s convenient, probably, that no one else in the room speaks Spanish.  
  
What she really wants to ask is something along the lines of _why the fuck are you wearing my washed-out Billy Talent 2009 tour shirt?_ There is no way in hell Lu didn’t do this on purpose. God, they’re basically fucking _matching_. Her own shirt is from the Green Day American Idiot tour, and the colors are slightly different, but she’s pretty sure everyone and their mother will be able to tell Lu does not normally dress like this.  
  
“It’s Friday,” Lu says. “I’m being casual.”  
  
She manages to stop looking at Lu in her shirt long enough to actually contribute to the meeting, which is a lot harder than it sounds. Lu looks fucking hot like this. Her hair is up in a messy bun — which, again, is super fucking unlike her — and she’s done her eye makeup a little smokier than usual. She’s wearing a pair of skintight _jeans_ , which is a style of pants Rebe didn’t even know Lu owned.  
  
So much for casual fucking Friday.  
  
There’s nothing casual about the way Lu holds her hand as they walk downstairs to get lunch.  
  


**Author's Note:**

> find me [on tumblr](http://cupcakeb.tumblr.com/)


End file.
